Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asserted that the State government is committed to provide a protective medical cover to all sections, especially poor, by improving medical infrastructure and human resources in the health sector.
“The Government is firm on taking healthcare to every household on the lines of Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya,” he said. The Chief Minister recalled the problems created on account of pandemics such as COVID-19 and said the government had resolved to face any challenges on the health front by strengthening the infrastructure and deploying human resources.
The Chief Minister virtually launched classes in eight new medical colleges set up in various parts of the State on November 15 in the presence of Health Minister T. Harish Rao, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and senior officials from Pragati Bhavan. New medical colleges were started in Sangareddy, Mahabubabad, Mancherial, Jagtial, Wanaparthy, Kothagudem, Nagarkurnool and Ramagundam.
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The inauguration of the new colleges will take the total number of medical colleges in the State to 17 and a total of 1,150 seats had been added in the medical stream with the new medical colleges. The total number of seats available in the government colleges was 850 earlier and the number rose to 2,790 since the formation of Telangana. “It is a pleasure to note that MBBS seats have increased four fold since the formation of separate State,” the Chief Minister said.
Participating in the virtual launch of classes, the Chief Minister said it was a historical moment for the State as medical colleges had been opened in remote areas in the districts such as Mahbubabad and Wanaparthy taking medical services closer to the people. Speaking on the occasion, he said the government was committed to open medical colleges in the remaining 17 districts and the State Cabinet had already given its approval for the same.
The proactive steps taken by the government ensured that there was sizeable increase in the number of post-graduate-, specialty- and super-specialty seats in various medical colleges in the State. The government was also planning to open colleges for training nurses and other paramedical staff to meet the requirements in the medical institutions.
He asked the Health Minister T. Harish Rao to visit the newly opened colleges from time to time to ensure that there was no shortage of facilities to the students there. “This is probably the first instance where eight medical colleges have been inaugurated on a single day in the youngest State of the country,” he said exhorting the officials concerned to take steps to see that Telangana emerged as “jewel in the country in terms of healthcare”.
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